A liquid crystal display device generally includes a liquid crystal panel composed of two insulating glass substrates facing each other. One of the glass substrates is called an array substrate and the other is called a counter substrate. The array substrate has thin film transistors (TFTs), pixel electrodes, etc., formed thereon, and the counter substrate has a common electrode (counter electrode), color filters, etc., formed thereon. In a display unit (display region) of the liquid crystal panel there are formed a plurality of source bus lines (video signal lines), a plurality of gate bus lines (scanning signal lines), and a plurality of pixel formation portions provided at the respective intersections of the plurality of source bus lines and the plurality of gate bus lines. Each pixel formation portion includes a TFT connected at its gate electrode to a gate bus line passing through a corresponding intersection, and connected at its source electrode to a source bus line passing through the intersection; a pixel electrode connected to a drain electrode of the TFT; the common electrode and an auxiliary capacitance electrode which are provided so as to be shared by the plurality of pixel formation portions; a liquid crystal capacitance formed by the pixel electrode and the common electrode; and an auxiliary capacitance formed by the pixel electrode and the auxiliary capacitance electrode. By the liquid crystal capacitance and the auxiliary capacitance, a pixel capacitance is formed. In a configuration such as that described above, a pixel capacitance is charged based on a video signal that is received from a source bus line by the source electrode of a TFT when the gate electrode of the TFT receives an active scanning signal from a gate bus line. By thus charging the pixel capacitances in the plurality of pixel formation portions, a desired image is displayed on the display unit.
Meanwhile, regarding display devices such as the above-described liquid crystal display device, conventionally, there is a problem of a reduction in power consumption. Hence, the development of a driving method that “provides a pause period during which video signal write operation is paused by stopping the scanning of the gate bus lines (provides a pause period between scanning periods)” is progressing. The driving method that thus provides a pause period during which write operation is paused is called “pause driving”, etc. Note that in a general liquid crystal display device, too, the gate bus lines are not scanned during a flyback period, but the flyback period is a part of a scanning period, and in pause driving a pause period longer than the flyback period is provided. In a liquid crystal display device adopting such pause driving, during the pause period, signals for control, etc., do not need to be provided to drivers (drive circuits) such as a gate driver and a source driver, for example. Hence, the driving frequency of the drivers, etc., decreases as a whole, enabling to achieve a reduction in power consumption.
FIG. 27 is a diagram for describing an example of pause driving. In the example shown in FIG. 27, a scanning period for one frame (one frame period is 16.67 ms) of a general liquid crystal display device whose refresh rate (driving frequency) is 60 Hz and a pause period for 59 frames appear alternately. Such pause driving is ideal for still image display. An invention of a liquid crystal display device that performs such pause driving is disclosed in, for example, WO 2012/137756 A.